Aileen Tan (born 18 October 1966) is a

Singapore Singapore (), officially the Republic of Singapore, is a sovereign island country and city-state in maritime Southeast Asia. It lies about one degree of latitude () north of the equator, off the southern tip of the Malay Peninsula, borde ...

an actress.

Life and career

She was educated at the now defunct Willow Secondary School. Tan was often cast in leading roles in the first 15 years of her acting career, but has since played supporting roles in recent years. She has been nominated multiple times in the ''Best Actress'' category at the annual

Star Awards The Star Awards (Chinese: 红星大奖) are awards for artistic and technical merit in the media organisation Mediacorp of Singapore where Mediacorp recognises entertainers under their employment for outstanding performances of the year. The ...

. She was nominated for the "Best Actress" award in 1995, 1996, 1997, 2001, 2002, and 2003; she won the award once in 2001 for her role in ''

Three Women and a Half Three Women and A Half 三个半女人 is a top-rated drama series in Singapore filmed by Matrix Vision and screened on MediaCorp TV Channel 8 in 2001. It starred Huang Wenyong, Aileen Tan, Huang Biren, Lin Meijiao and Vivian Lai. The plot mainly ...

'', playing a manager in an advertising company who would make use of her looks and charms to climb up the corporate ladder. Tan took a break from television in 2005. In 2006, she appeared in two Singapore dramas, ''

Women of Times ''Women of Times'' ( Chinese: 至尊红颜) is a 30-episode Chinese drama telecast in Singapore in 2006. Cast *Fann Wong as Marissa Wang Xiyi 王曦怡 * Edmund Chen as Justin Jia Zengtu 贾增土 *Chen Hanwei as Ding Hanzhe 丁瀚哲 *Cheng Pei- ...

'' and '' Measure of Man'', the latter drama clinching the runner-up position in 2006's television viewership ratings. Tan also ventured into English dramas. In 2000, she played Mae in

MediaCorp Channel 5 Channel 5 (Chinese: 五頻道) is a free-to-air, English-language television channel in Singapore. Owned by state broadcaster Mediacorp, it broadcasts general entertainment, news, and sports programming. The channel's logo is a big white number ...

's longest-running drama series, '' Growing Up''. Later in 2009, she played Suzanne Kong, the wife of a tycoon in the 40-episode drama ''Red Thread''. In 2013, Tan won the "Best Actress in a Supporting Role" award at the 18th

Asian Television Awards The Asian Television Awards (launched in 1996), is an appreciation to recognize and reward programming and production excellence in the Asian television industry. Held every December, the Awards comprises 56 categories across news, documentarie ...

(ATA) for her role in ''The Day It Rained on Our Parade'' which consisted only four episodes. On 29 May 2015, it was announced that Tan will play the lead role in

Jack Neo Jack Neo (born 24 January 1960) is a Singaporean actor, television host, comedian and film director. He was prominently a full-time Mediacorp artiste from 1983 to 2003. In the 1990s and early 2000s, he was best known for his cross-dressing roles ...

's film, ''

Long Long Time Ago Long Long Time Ago (Chinese: 我们的故事; Hokkien: 我儂个故事; POJ: ''Guá-lâng ê kòo-sīr''; literally "Our Story") is a 2016 Singaporean period film directed by Jack Neo. The film commemorates Singapore's 50th birthday and stars Aile ...

'' alongside Mark Lee and Wang Lei. At

Star Awards 2017 Star Awards 2017 (also SA2017, Chinese: 红星大奖2017) is a television award ceremony which is held in Singapore. It is part of the annual Star Awards organised by Mediacorp for free-to-air channels Channels 8 and U. The Road to Star Awards ...

, Tan received the Best Supporting Actress for the drama

Hero (2016 TV series) ''Hero'' (Chinese: 大英雄) is a Singaporean blockbuster drama produced and telecast on Mediacorp Channel 8. The show aired at 9pm on weekdays and had a repeat telecast at 8am the following day. It stars Shaun Chen , Chen Hanwei & Jesseca Liu a ...

. She announced in a speech that this would be the last time she would go on stage to receive this award. In Star Awards 2018, she landed her 4th nomination for Best Supporting Actress for the drama, Have a Little Faith. Tan has gotten 2 out of 10 Top 10 Most Popular Female Artistes from 1994, 1997 respectively.

Personal life

Tan's parents are of

Hokkien The Hokkien () variety of Chinese is a Southern Min language native to and originating from the Minnan region, where it is widely spoken in the south-eastern part of Fujian in southeastern mainland China. It is one of the national languages in ...

descent. She married

Hong Kong Hong Kong ( (US) or (UK); , ), officially the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region of the People's Republic of China ( abbr. Hong Kong SAR or HKSAR), is a city and special administrative region of China on the eastern Pearl River Delt ...

film director A film director controls a film's artistic and dramatic aspects and visualizes the screenplay (or script) while guiding the film crew and actors in the fulfilment of that vision. The director has a key role in choosing the cast members, p ...

Gerald Lee in 2002. She experienced an

ectopic pregnancy Ectopic pregnancy is a complication of pregnancy in which the embryo attaches outside the uterus. Signs and symptoms classically include abdominal pain and vaginal bleeding, but fewer than 50 percent of affected women have both of these symptoms. ...

in 2006, which eventually led to an abortion.

Filmography

Television

Films

Awards and nominations

References

External links

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Tan, Aileen Living people 1966 births Singaporean people of Hokkien descent Singaporean television actresses Singaporean film actresses 20th-century Singaporean actresses 21st-century Singaporean actresses